Have good food?
Our Creator blessed us when He gave us the ability to make and enjoy food: cooking, baking and eating is definitely one of my favorite past times. It is one of the greater pleasures available to us, to create tastes and smells, to enjoy the textures and variety and to add to that enjoyment with good company. When I say ice-cream, chocolate, steak etc the mind immediately jumps to that exact taste. Oh, the delight of a sense of taste, given to the human being.
Have you ever been invited to Sunday lunch, where you arrive and the table is groaning under the most delicious looking food you have seen in a long time? Your hostess excitedly waves to the food and says “Come on, eat!” In Psalm 34:8 we are invited to a feast in just such an enthusiastic way:
“Taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.”
Isaiah 55:1-3 repeats the invitation:
Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters, and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread and your labour on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me, hear me, that your soul may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David.
In is an invitation to receive spiritual food from the Lord, that has benefits for our spiritual person. Paul describes believers in Heb 6:5 as we “who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the power of the coming age.”
In Math 4:4 Jesus reminds us that “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” And in John 6:51, He says, “I am the living bread that come down from heaven, If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”
We are to eat and drink from the word of the Lord. It is necessary to nourish the spiritual person inside of us so that we may become stronger.
So the question is: “Are we nibbling at the Lord’s table, or are we feasting? Are we delighting in “the richest of fare” that can satisfy us completely, or do we have reasons why we are not eating?
Psalm 23 rejoices in that “He prepares a table for me in the presence of my enemies.”
So why do we not eat from the Word of God and nourish our souls?
There are many reasons in our physical world which would prevent us from eating, or eating properly. Even reasons why would avoid eating. These reasons in our physical world, parallel to the reasons we do not eat the spiritual food our spirits need. They are set out below:
| We have prejudice – our culture is not the same, we eat different foods and the taste is not familiar to us. We fear eating something we may not like. | We are prejudiced as to whether God’s word is absolute truth– there are other sources of “truth” that we have come across. Other books, TV personalities, speakers, people we follow who know. |
| We question origin – We are not sure where this meat actually comes from, is it safe to consume. | We question as to whether the bible is the Word of God or just another book telling a story. Until we clarify in our minds as to what it is we are spiritually eating, we will not take it seriously. |
| Lack of desire to eat. We do not feel like going right now and fixing ourselves a sandwich. | A lack of desire to get into scripture, it feels like just another thing to do. We have other things which we prefer doing at this moment. |
| The taste of a particular dish does not appeal to us, in my case it is Brussel sprouts! | We do not have a taste for what the bible is telling us to do and be, so we avoid it in general. |
| Our Pride, we are not like other people, we do not have to eat all the time like they do. | We feel that we don’t need time in scripture, our spiritual walk is going along well, “Other Christians may need it, but not me.” |
| Our Self sufficiency, “Oh don’t worry, I have got what I need, I have brought my own food!” | We believe that we have everything we need for our lives. We have our abilities, good family and friends for support, money, health etc. We don’t need it at this time of our lives. |
| Lack of a need to eat. We are simply not hungry. | We have no spiritual hunger, we do not feel that our spirit needs it. Don’t identify with a soul that hungers. |
| We are on a diet, purposefully avoiding food because we are always on a diet, or perhaps we have other goals in mind. | We are neglecting our spiritual food, for whatever reason, or perhaps avoiding it because we have other goals in mind. |
Which of the above applies to you? Is it causing you to nibble rather than eat?
- Are you choosing to nourish your spiritual person with the Word of God?
- Do you realise that God invites you everyday to the table He has prepared for you? What are you going to start doing today, to ensure that you get into the Word?
Father, I realised today that I have reasons why I do not feast from your word and that I am allowing my spiritual person to go without the nourishment it needs from the Word to grow. I realise that spiritual growth cannot happen in my life if I do not spend time in your Word. Help me to work on this personal discipline by following a regular diet of spiritually eating from your Word. Then when I do taste and experience the good from your Word, please help me to feast and not just to nibble.
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